Jean Louis Vastey (1781–1820): A Biographical Sketch

Jean Louis Vastey (1781–1820): A Biographical Sketch

Baron de Vastey

Publisher:

Liverpool University Press

DOI:10.5949/liverpool/9781781380314.003.0002

These prefatory materials provide, first, a general historical context for reading The Colonial System Unveiled and, second, a comprehensive overview of Vastey’s little-studied life. The Preface situates Vastey’s work in relation to the new surge of interest in the Haitian Revolution across a range of academic disciplines, and also reflects on reasons for the continued neglect of that revolution’s immediate aftermath (or what the author refers to as Haiti’s “post/revolutionary condition”; 1804-25). The Biographical Sketch charts Vastey’s rise to prominence as a writer, from his obscure origins as the son of a French plantation owner and a free woman of color to his very public murder in 1820, the result of his close association with the deposed King of Haiti, Henry Christophe.

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